Accessible Power BI reporting
Using colour
Choose a colour palette for your Power BI dashboard that is:
- Consistent
- Contains suitable colours for use with all elements (text and graphs or charts)
- Has accessible colour contrast
We recommend using the inbuilt accessible colour themes. For example, using a white background with clear contrast between content colours.
Consider stakeholder branding when choosing your colour palette.
Accessible colour contrast
Colour contrast is the difference between two colours. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) have clear criteria on the lowest contrast allowed between colours.
All touching colours in your Power BI dashboard must have an accessible contrast, apart from logos and decorative images. Find out more about images in Power BI.
How to check colour contrast is accessible
Use a colour contrast checker to ensure that the colours you choose are accessible.
Colour contrast checkers give you a contrast ratio score. They tell you if the ratio score passes or fails against WCAG criteria.
Use the WebAIM Contrast Checker to review your colour combinations.
Colours in graphs and charts
Be consistent with your choice of colours across the graphs and charts in your dashboard.
It can be useful to use borders within visuals to add contrast.
Do not rely on colour alone to provide important information.
What to consider when choosing graph/chart colours:
- Would the chart be understandable in black and white? Some people cannot see colour at all.
- Do your colours work with specific types of colour blindness? Use the Coblis online colour blindness simulator.
- Do the colours make sense? Colours can infer meaning. Consider what meaning your users might interpret from your choice of colour.
- You should use shades of one colour for continuous data, and different colours for categories. Learn more about how to present different types of data in charts.
- Would you like selected data points to be a contrasting colour to the default line, bar, or column colour?
Further guidance on using colour in charts on the Government Analysis Function website.
